CNN host Brianna Keilar called out Hillary Clinton supporter Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.) on Friday when he claimed her email scandal was a "Republican ploy," telling him Clinton was facing fair questions about the conflating interests of the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.
Emails released this week showed instances of Clinton Foundation donors getting rewarded with access to the State Department when Clinton was secretary of state. It was also revealed that the Justice Department blocked the FBI from investigating the potentially illicit relationship between the two Clinton-controlled entities.
Keilar noted to Moulton on New Day that Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, has again found herself in hot water over the new revelations.
"We now know from new emails that there's really quite a bit of an overlap between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when she was at the helm of the State Department," Keilar said. "You have a majority of Americans who don't believe that she is honest about her emails. How does she shake that, and how does she, I guess, turn away from what are really bad optics for her?"
"Look, this is all a Republican ploy to make a big deal out of nothing," Moulton said. "The Justice Department, Director Comey has said that there was no intentional wrongdoing with her emails. She herself admitted that she made some mistakes, but we're moving on from that. What the Trump campaign is trying to do is just distract attention from the fact that he is talking about—"
Keilar cut over him.
"Is it just created by Republicans? I look at it, the facts of the case, and I think there's something there that should be scrutinized," Keilar said. "Is it really just Republicans piling on, or is this fair questions?"
"Look, it has been scrutinized. It has been scrutinized, and it's been concluded that there was no intentional wrongdoing," Moulton said. "That's what Director Comey said himself."
Moulton did not note Comey called Clinton "extremely careless," with classified material, and he dodged the subject of Keilar's question: the light shed this week on allegations of pay-for-play between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department, something Clinton herself claimed never happened under her watch.
CNN also reported Thursday that top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, while she was still working at the State Department, interviewed people for a key Clinton Foundation position.